Nene Book Awards Draw Special Crowd

Hawaii children’s favorite books are the life of the party at Nene Award ceremonies, especially with this year’s invited guests.

Sacred Hearts Academy hosted the 2015 awards April 9 in a program that featured hanging (online) with Tom Angleberger, who wrote the 2014 Nene award-winning book, The Strange Case of the Origami Yoda. Naturally, Yoda attended, along with a few of his friends from the Star Wars universe.

At a Nene Awards gathering in this galaxy last month at Sacred Hearts Academy Lower School were SHA media specialist Lauren Oshiro (front, from left) Stormtrooper, students Rachel Huang, Annika Lindberg, Ayla Hakikawa and Emma Kauhane; Yoda, Stormtrooper, (back) Scouttrooper, Tusken Raider, Stormtrooper and Tie Pilot. (See story at left for explanation.) Photo from Hayley Matson-Mathes.

While island children statewide in grades 4-6 voted for their 2015 favorite (R.J. Palacio’s Wonder), they also competed in several creative categories of their own.

Among the winners were SHA sixth-graders Carolei Edra (persuasive digital media), Kelly Thieu (interpretive essay), Emma Kauhane (interpretive digital media) and honorable mentions to Alya Hakikawa, Annika Lindberg and Rachel Huang (persuasive poster designs).

Darth Vader himself had the honor of announcing the 2015 Nene author.